GSTC’s Randy Durband.
Destinations must address issues such as overtourism and its social
and environmental impacts, while accounting methods can help to measure
the economic impacts of tourism.
This is according to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC),
which recently hosted a webinar on pathways to compliance to the GSTC
criteria, the global baseline standards for sustainable travel and
tourism.
It explored the requirements of a systematic approach to sustainable tourism.
Prioritise actions
You cannot be perfect at everything all at once. “Complying with
standards for sustainability and taking a systematic approach to
sustainable tourism is a complex job, as businesses have many facets and
tourism is complex - there are many elements of service and experience
and many different components to it,” said Randy Durband, CEO at GSTC.
“As an organisation, you need to be thinking about which attributes
you can work on first and break these down. We cannot necessarily be
brilliant and perfect at everything all at once, so prioritise what
you're going to do.”
Skills within the organisation to measure and to report on carbon
emissions are necessary and increasingly important in those destinations
with regulatory pressure.
The industry must do more to create common, open source inexpensive
tools for measurement and reporting. Organisations need to improve
skills internally for proper measurement and reporting. “You can’t set
that off to the side and say, ‘oh, we'll get to that easily - it's not
necessarily easy,” said Durband. “Even in a small organisation, you need
someone who is goal-setting and tracking data to measure and manage
progress. As an industry, we've got a long way to go.”
Dedicated team
While working with consultants is a good idea, organisations ideally
need to have a team dedicated to learning about sustainability and
continuous development. “That team needs to be across many departments,”
said Durband. “Are you measuring sustainability elements in your client
satisfaction surveys? This is greatly missed in the industry and
businesses that ignore it are doing so at their own peril.”
Durband also outlined how guest satisfaction is king when it comes to
the success of businesses and travel and tourism marketing. The repeat
factors for visitors to come back to your hotel or to your destination
are far cheaper to manage than paying for customer acquisition through
increased promotion.
Self-assessments
Customer attitudes change every year, so compliance is a continual
exercise, with ongoing training and awareness. Get into the habit of
carrying out self-assessments on a regular basis, ideally annually,
which will prompt you to think about sustainability attributes.
“Setting internal targets for the next 12 or 18 months and making
incremental steps is the way to improve because you've got to test new
practices, measure impacts and see if this is all really working,” said
Durband.
Celebrate victories
Once businesses reach different criteria levels, it is important to
recognise and acknowledge these achievements, however small they may be.
Durband also pointed out how staff retention levels are exceptional in
those businesses that are really engaged with their staff and
sustainability.
“The whole travel industry is really struggling these days with
labour shortages so that’s something for managers and owners to keep in
mind - staff want to feel good about it,” he said.